No Charlotte curse...

There's been a lot of speculation over the years about a supposed 'Charlotte curse' keeping citizens of the state's biggest city from getting elected to statewide office in North Carolina. But PPP's newest survey finds that voters in the state like the Queen City just fine- 59% see it favorably to 18% with an unfavorable opinion. Pat McCrory can rest easy, at least on that front.

The general perception has been that a candidate being from Charlotte was particularly a problem with voters in eastern North Carolina. It's true that Charlotte is viewed less favorably there than elsewhere in the state, but it's still a 55/13 spread in southeastern North Carolina and a 51/11 one in northeastern North Carolina. Not too bad...

Charlotte's not the most popular city in the state though- that designation goes to Wilmington and Raleigh, both of which are seen favorably by 67% of voters. Wilmington gets top honors because only 4% of voters have a negative opinion of it, compared to 11% with a dim view of Raleigh. Raleigh is the top city in the state with Democrats at 73/10, while Wilmington is the top city with Republicans at 65/2.

On the other end of the spectrum are Fayetteville and Durham. Fayetteville was the only city we tested that actually has a negative favorability, at 29/30. Durham is on only narrowly positive ground at 38/29. The most interesting thing about Durham's numbers is that it's seen favorably in every part of the state- except in the Triangle where it's located. There it has a 37/43 favorability. Democrats actually like Durham, giving it a positive 47/24 spread, but it's the least popular city with Republicans at 29/34. Democrats split evenly on Fayetteville at 31/31, making it the only city they don't have a positive opinion of.

The late State Senator Jim Forrester said Asheville was a cesspool of sin, but we find it with a 56/18 rating among Republicans and 61/12 one overall. That makes it the state's third most popular city. The biggest partisan gap on any individual town unsurprisingly is Chapel Hill- Democrats rate it favorably 65/13, while Republicans do so only 38/25. Its overall rating is 53/18.

Here's how all the cities stack up in order of net favorability. Full results here

City	Net Favorability
Wilmington	+63 (67/4)
Raleigh	+56 (67/11)
Asheville	+49 (61/12)
Winston-Salem	+47 (55/8)
Greensboro	+45 (56/11)
Charlotte	+41 (59/18)
Chapel Hill	+35 (53/18)
Cary	+27 (41/14)
Greenville	+25 (36/11)
Carrboro	+10 (21/11)
Durham	+9 (38/29)
Fayetteville	-1 (29/30)

Comments

[Steve]

Did you survey the gay marriage ban in this month's North Carolina numbers?